Corking-machine.



Patented Nov. 10. 191%- C. GENTLE.

GORKING MACHINE.

APPLICATION IILED JULY so, 1913.

THE NORRIS PETERS CO.. PHOIO-LITHO.. WASHINGWN. D. C.

CUTHIBERT GENTLE, 0F DORCI-IESTER, MASSACHUSETTS,

AssIGNon' TO THOMAS H.

IBOWDIDGE, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

COBKING-MACHIN E.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov.'1o, 1914.

Application filed July 30, 1913. Serial No. 781,925.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, CUTHBERT GENTLE, a subject of the King of England, residing at Dorchester, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Corking-Machines, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to machines for inserting corks in bottle mouths to seal the liquid contents thereof. In practice it is found desirable to provide these machines with a cork compressor for compressing the cork before it is driven into the bottle mouth so that the cork may expand therein and tightly seal the bottle. These cork compressors usually comprises a pair of cooperating jaws which are actuated to close forcibly around the cork. The compressed cork is then driven out of the compressing jaws into the bottle by a reciprocating plunger. Large bottlers usually employ power actuated machines for inserting corks in bottle mouths but the small bottler usually employs a hand corking device. Corking machines are provided with cork compressors as the power actuated mechanism for the plimgers is powerful enough to drive the compressed corks out of the compressing jaws into the bottle mouths. The hand devices are not provided with cork compressors as the resistance offered by the compressed cork held by the compressing jaws is too great to be overcome by a hand driven plunger.

The object of the invention is to provide a machine for inserting corks in bottle mouths with a cork compressor of simplified and improved construction which will permit the compressed cork to be driven therefrom with less expenditure of power than heretofore. To the accomplishment of this object a feature of the present invention contemplates the provision in a corking head provided with a longitudinally movable plunger of a pair of cork compressing rolls arranged with their axes substantially at right angles to the line of movement of the plunger. WVith this construction the rolls rotate as the plunger drives the cork therethrough thus reducing the resistance offered to the passage of the cork to a minimum. 7

Other features of the invention consist in certain devices, combinations and arrangements of parts hereinafter described and claimed the advantages of which will be obvious to those skilled in the art from the following description.

The various features of thepresent invention will be best understood from an in-- spection of the accompanying drawing illustrating the best form of the corking head at present devised, in which Figure 1 is an elevation, partly in section, of the corking head; Fig. 2 is a sectional plan on the line '22, Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is an underside plan.

In the illustrated embodiment of the invention the corking head comprises a casmg 1 provided with a longitudinal bore 2 and a central opening 3. Mounted to reciprocate in the bore 2 is a plunger & provided with a head 5 at its lower end and a heavy ball 6 at its upper end. The lower section of the bore 2 is fitted with a tapered tube 7 which guides the cork to an opening 8 formed in a flaring mouth 9 carried by a rectangular, box 10 on the casing 1. The mouth 9 carries a rubber buffer 11 which is held by a spring 12 in position to engage the peripheral wall of the bottle'mouth to prevent chipping or breaking of the bottle.

In order to compress the cork, the cork guiding passage is provided with a pair of opposed openings 13 through which project a pair of rolls 14. The rolls 11 restrict the passage and are rotatably mounted about horizontal axes in the box 10. To this end the box 10 is provided with a removable wall 15 which is secured to the box 10 by a pair of horizontal studs 16 arranged to engage threads formed in the opposed wall in the box 10. The studs intermediate the walls of the box loosely carry the rolls 14;.

.To enable the rolls to uniformly compress the cylindrical cork the peripheries of the rolls are concaved (Fig. 2).

In use the mouth 9 is placed over the mouth of a bottle with the opening 8 registering with the opening in the bottle. The ball 6 is then engaged by the operative and the plunger elevated until the head thereon is stopped by the wall 17 of the casing 1. The cork is then dropped in the tube 7. When the plunger is forcibly brought to bear upon the top of the cork it is forced between the rolls which compress the cork as the cork is driven through the rolls. The rolls rotate as they compress the cork to permit the cork to be forced therethrough and into the bottle mouth with a minimum amount of friction. If it is found desirable or expedient to substitute different sizes of rolls to compress various sizes of corks the Wall 15 may be readily detached to facilitate the desired change.

While the features of the invention have been illustrated and described as embodied in a hand corking device it Will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the features of the invention are equally useful in a power driven machine in which the corks are automatically supplied to the plunger.

What is claimed as neW, is

l. A corking head, having, in combination, a longitudinally movable plunger, and a pair of cork compressing rolls arranged With their axes substantially at right angles to the line of movement of the plunger, substantially as described.

A corking head, having, in combination, a cork delivering tube, a pair of rolls arranged to operate through openings in the tube, and. a plunger for driving the cork in the tube past the rolls, substantially as described.

CUTHBERT GENTLE.

Witnesses CHARLES W. MCDERMOTT, JAMEs L. BREWSTER.

copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Gommissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C. 

